WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:14.600 This is Hacker Public Radio episode 3,787 for Tuesday 7 February 2023. 00:14.600 --> 00:16.720 Today's show is entitled. 00:16.720 --> 00:19.440 It shouldn't crackle like that. 00:19.440 --> 00:23.600 It is hosted by Rowan and is about 10 minutes long. 00:23.600 --> 00:26.200 It carries a clean flag. 00:26.200 --> 00:32.200 The summary is Rowan describes fixing the wiring to a ceramic Christmas tree. 00:32.200 --> 00:44.960 I welcome to another episode of Hacker Public Radio. 00:44.960 --> 00:51.080 This is Rowan and today I'll be giving you a short Christmas story. 00:51.080 --> 00:57.400 So the Friday before Christmas, my partner's mother called me and asked if I had a short 00:57.400 --> 01:00.120 indoor extension cord she could borrow. 01:00.120 --> 01:04.720 When I arrived at her house, which takes all of about 30 seconds to get to, she lives in 01:04.720 --> 01:07.480 the next town hometown. 01:07.480 --> 01:12.720 She showed me her display of ceramic Christmas trees for what she needed to extension 01:12.720 --> 01:14.760 cord. 01:14.760 --> 01:22.120 These decorations have two pieces of base which holds a small light bulb and then the tree 01:22.120 --> 01:29.320 which sits over the light and has translucent colored plastic Christmas lights attached 01:29.320 --> 01:34.440 to it which are illuminated by the light bulb inside this tree. 01:34.440 --> 01:41.440 There were four ceramic trees of bearing heights from about 14 inches, about 36 centimeters 01:41.440 --> 01:47.920 to six inches, about 15 centimeters tall, while helping to arrange each of the trees electrical 01:47.920 --> 01:51.480 cords and plugging them into the extension cable. 01:51.480 --> 01:53.880 One of the trees wouldn't stay lit. 01:53.880 --> 01:58.600 If you turn the base or move the cord, it would light back up but then it would go out 01:58.600 --> 02:00.320 once you took the pressure off the cord. 02:00.320 --> 02:04.280 I could also hear crackling at times when moving the cord. 02:04.280 --> 02:08.360 Not a sound you want to hear in an electrical ornament. 02:08.360 --> 02:14.040 After separating the pieces and turning over the base, I could see not only the sparks 02:14.040 --> 02:16.000 but why it was sparking. 02:16.000 --> 02:21.440 At some point one of the wires had come loose from the light socket and was taped back into 02:21.440 --> 02:23.880 place with what looks like duct tape. 02:23.880 --> 02:26.360 The ornament was made in the 1950s. 02:26.360 --> 02:31.280 I'm not sure when the repair was made, as ornaments have been passed through the family 02:31.280 --> 02:32.680 over the years. 02:32.680 --> 02:39.040 The plastic which held the wire in place had failed over the years and the tape was also 02:39.040 --> 02:43.600 failing from the electric sparks that would occur when the wire was moved around. 02:43.600 --> 02:46.200 You can see burn marks on the tape around the wire. 02:46.200 --> 02:51.240 At first I thought I might be able to fix the side with the bad wiring, maybe saw to 02:51.240 --> 02:56.400 the wire into the socket to give it a good electrical connection and then use electrical 02:56.400 --> 03:00.000 tape to cover the hole where the socket casing had failed. 03:00.000 --> 03:04.680 And in the process of taking the wire out and removing all the duct tape, the socket's 03:04.680 --> 03:06.920 electrical contact fell out. 03:06.920 --> 03:11.160 I'd say this was for the best, the whole socket needed replacing. 03:11.160 --> 03:16.000 My biggest issue is I wasn't sure I could find a replacement socket that would fit through 03:16.000 --> 03:18.840 the hole in the ceramic base. 03:18.840 --> 03:22.040 So I'll do a last-minute Christmas shopping. 03:22.040 --> 03:24.000 The next day I'm Christmas Eve. 03:24.000 --> 03:28.640 I stopped at one of the big box hardware stores to browse the electrical section and see if 03:28.640 --> 03:31.200 I could find a replacement socket that might work. 03:31.200 --> 03:35.360 Of course I hadn't brought either the old socket or the light bulb, but I found a small 03:35.360 --> 03:38.880 rack with replacement sockets that looked like it might work. 03:38.880 --> 03:44.400 The Camphila cantalobra style socket replacement looked like the correct size for both the 03:44.400 --> 03:47.520 light bulb and the hole in the base of the ornament. 03:47.520 --> 03:53.640 Once I was home, I tested the fit of the light bulb and the socket was the correct size. 03:53.640 --> 03:59.240 It was just a little too big for the hole in the base, the new white socket, but I was 03:59.240 --> 04:04.240 hoping I could just grind off some of the raised plastic lettering and maybe a little off 04:04.240 --> 04:08.960 the sides of the new socket here and there to get it to fit in the base. 04:08.960 --> 04:14.120 Was leary of using my dermal tool to make the hole bigger in the ceramic base. 04:14.120 --> 04:16.560 I didn't want it to crack or chip the finish. 04:16.560 --> 04:22.840 I did end up doing both grinding down some of the plastic on the replacement socket and 04:22.840 --> 04:25.920 grinding out the hole in the ceramic base. 04:25.920 --> 04:32.360 I first, like I had sort of, there was raised lettering on the side of the new socket. 04:32.360 --> 04:40.440 I ground those down with the Dremel and then there were just some places when I was trying 04:40.440 --> 04:45.320 to fit it in where I felt like it was a little tight, so I was just trying to grind a 04:45.320 --> 04:48.280 little off the side here and there. 04:48.280 --> 04:57.040 I was getting close, but I noticed that like I was starting to get take too much off 04:57.040 --> 05:04.360 of places on the new socket and I didn't want to destroy it and compromise its integrity. 05:04.360 --> 05:13.040 So I did very carefully start grinding the hole, trying to make it a little more circular 05:13.040 --> 05:19.320 in the ceramic, I do a little bit and then I tested to see if the socket would go down 05:19.320 --> 05:30.320 through and I finally did and then of course it wasn't a snug fit, so the socket went down 05:30.320 --> 05:32.600 in all the way. 05:32.600 --> 05:40.960 So the new socket sort of had this hexagonal end on it. 05:40.960 --> 05:47.160 So that would keep it from sliding all the way through the hole, which was good, but 05:47.160 --> 05:55.320 it also the new head socket had this piece of aluminum, it was sort of like an extender 05:55.320 --> 06:01.000 to keep the wires going straight out and keep the wires from like bending too close to 06:01.000 --> 06:07.760 the end of the plastic socket coming out the bottom of it. 06:07.760 --> 06:15.920 And so when the new socket slid all the way down to the base it was sort of sticking out 06:15.920 --> 06:21.600 the bottom, so like you wouldn't have been able to have the Christmas tree stands sit nice 06:21.600 --> 06:22.880 and flat. 06:22.880 --> 06:29.000 So I did have to have it raised about a quarter inch, I'm not quite sure how many millimeters 06:29.000 --> 06:34.680 that is, and so I took a piece of electrical tape and I did end up playing electrical 06:34.680 --> 06:39.960 tape on it, I wrapped it around the new socket and then that provided enough tension 06:39.960 --> 06:48.880 then that I sort of could put the offset, the candle up, the candle up, the candle up, 06:48.880 --> 06:56.080 the socket and the base enough so that the wires didn't stick out the bottom and it 06:56.080 --> 07:00.560 was very snug at that point, I thought you could probably get away with just leaving 07:00.560 --> 07:04.440 it like that, but I also wanted to make sure that I was 07:04.440 --> 07:12.000 better physically secured in there, so we have a glue gun somewhere in the house, I still 07:12.000 --> 07:16.800 haven't found it, usually our girls are not that great up on any things away, but I think 07:16.800 --> 07:22.960 I was the last one to use the glue gun, so that's probably what I mean, I did find 07:22.960 --> 07:27.960 a big bag of glue sticks, so that was beneficial, so what I did, I don't do this at home 07:27.960 --> 07:36.840 kids, a desottering gun, which is basically like a very hot, very concentrated hair dryer, 07:36.840 --> 07:43.320 and I figured if it would melt solder, it would, you know, soften a glue stick, so I was 07:43.320 --> 07:49.960 able to carefully sort of press the glue stick at the edge where the candle uper was 07:49.960 --> 08:01.360 coming through the base on inside and blow, on the low setting, use the hot air, desotter 08:01.360 --> 08:05.600 to soften the glue and sort of push the glue stick around, but of course as you're pushing 08:05.600 --> 08:11.960 the glue stick, it's getting closer into the base, which means my fingers are getting 08:11.960 --> 08:17.480 closer into the very hot stream of air, and so it's only able to make it about three 08:17.480 --> 08:23.640 quarters of the way around before it just was like too hot to do, so I sort of pulled 08:23.640 --> 08:28.600 the glue stick off, and I let it cool just a little bit, and then I just took my finger 08:28.600 --> 08:37.120 around and smoothed the glue around the base of where the candle uper outlet goes through 08:37.120 --> 08:41.560 the base, and actually it turned out looks pretty good, and it definitely provided that 08:41.560 --> 08:51.400 extra stability to hold the socket in the base, the next step then was to connect the 08:51.400 --> 08:56.280 old cord, which the old cord was still in good shape except right where it had gone into 08:56.280 --> 09:03.000 the old socket, so I cut that off the one side that was still good and attached, and then 09:03.000 --> 09:11.720 I even did up and then stripped the ends for a new connection, and then the new socket had 09:11.720 --> 09:18.680 the two wires coming out of it with about six inches of tail to give you room to mess with it, 09:18.680 --> 09:28.600 and I had purchased two small of the screw nuts connectors, so it is nicely screwed together 09:28.600 --> 09:34.760 good electrical connection, and probably the recommended safe way of connecting to electrical 09:34.760 --> 09:41.480 cables, cords, and so that I had already, you know, strung the old thing back through the whole 09:41.480 --> 09:48.040 on the side of the base, wire nutted them together, and it all fit back in under the base, 09:48.040 --> 09:56.680 nicely, I could say it would flip the base over, plug it in, it lit up, put the top on it, 09:56.680 --> 10:02.840 sits nice and level, and the tree lights up, and hopefully will be good for another 50 years or so, 10:02.840 --> 10:11.400 and not be a fire threat when you plug it in. So anyway, that was my exciting Christmas Eve, 10:11.400 --> 10:19.320 that's sort of my guess my Christmas Eve present to my soon-to-be mother-in-law, and I hope 10:19.320 --> 10:28.600 you enjoyed this episode of making Christmas a little safer. 10:49.720 --> 10:52.920 The Internet Archive and our Sync.net 10:52.920 --> 10:57.880 On the side of the stages, today's show is released on our Creative Commons, 10:57.880 --> 11:20.440 attribution 4.0 International Bisones.